‘Cleopatra Jones’ Back At Warner Bros; Misha Green Writing, Producing

EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros is reviving Cleopatra Jones, the 1973 blaxploitation female empowerment film that starred Tamara Dobson as the undercover government agent who used the day job of supermodel as her cover and an excuse to travel to exotic places. The studio has set Misha Green to write the script and produce a film that will present the heroine very much as the female answer to James Bond. Those comparisons were made when the original hit film was released, partly because Jones was so adept at martial arts and drove a Corvette Stingray fully equipped with automatic weapons. In the original, she faced off against a drug kingpin named Mommy (Shelley Winter), with a mission to destroy the poppy plants that were fueling drugs devastating the inner city.

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Green is the co-creator, writer and exec producer of the WGN series Underground, who is now working with exec producers Jordan Peele and JJ Abrams on Lovecraft. She is co-creator, writer and exec producer of the upcoming HBO series. She is also writer and producer of the Netflix film The Mother.

Niija Kuykendall will oversee for Warner Bros. Green is repped by CAA and Del, Shaw, Moonves.

The deal comes after Sony set a new version of Super Fly and as New Line preps a reprise of Shaft that Tim Story will direct with Samuel L. Jackson returning as the original Shaft’s nephew, with Jessie T. Usher playing his son, and Richard Roundtree, who originated the character, back as well. Netflix acquired the foreign on that film, and will play it on its international streaming service two weeks after it opens.